19 December 1749
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
Context: We must not suppose that, because a man is a rational animal, he will, therefore, always act rationally; or, because he has such or such a predominant passion, that he will act invariably and consequentially in pursuit of it. No, we are complicated machines; and though we have one main spring that gives motion to the whole, we have an infinity of little wheels, which, in their turns, retard, precipitate, and sometime stop that motion.
“Man is not a rational animal. He is only truly good or great when he acts from passion.”
Book 6, chapter 12.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Henrietta Temple (1837)
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Benjamin Disraeli 306
British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Pri… 1804–1881Related quotes
“Man is a make-believe animal — he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.”
Notes of a Journey through France and Italy (1824), ch. XVI
“Man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal.”
Source: Tunnel in the Sky (1955), Chapter 2, “The Fifth Way” (p. 42)
19 December 1749
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
“The great act of faith is when a man decides that he is not God.”
Letter http://archive.org/stream/thoughtandcharac032117mbp#page/n495/mode/2up/search/great+faith+man+God to William James (24 March 1907).
1900s
Quotations from Gurudev’s teachings, Chinmya Mission Chicago
§ III
1910s, At the Feet of the Master (1911)
Another Roadside Attraction (1971)
Context: When a man confines an animal in a cage, he assumes ownership of that animal. But an animal is an individual; it cannot be owned. When a man tries to own an individual, whether that individual be another man, an animal or even a tree, he suffers the psychic consequences of an unnatural act.